Riot: League of Legends Championship Series Players Cannot Stream Other Games

[Gahars]

eSports: We're legitimate, guys! Honest!

[With less than three weeks until Riot's Battle of the Atlantic tournament, teams and players are being finalized for Season 4 of Riot's League of Legends Championship Series (LCS). With the new season on the horizon, contracts have been sent out to owners of current LCS teams.

onGamers has obtained a section of the 2014 League of Legends Championship Series contracts sent to team owners. In the section we were provided, new regulations are stipulated for what games players can and and cannot stream. The "Sponsorship and Streaming Restricted List" states that 'the following companies and/or products are not to be advertised during or adjacent to League of Legends," during the term of the agreement (duration of the contract).onGamers has confirmed with several team representatives that the document provided is real.

...onGamers has confirmed with the team representatives that LCS players are disallowed from streaming the games listed below outright, not just when adjacent to a League of Legends stream. Under Section 3 Rule 4 of the new contract handling 'Non-League Events and Streaming', it states that "... the [LCS] Team shall ensure that, during the Term of this Agreement, its Team Members do not publicly stream gameplay of the titles set forth on Exhibit B". Exhibit B states "the specific restrictions on streaming are set forth in the Sponsorship and Streaming Restricted List, as updated by the League from time to time", which is the document listed below.

OnGamers

And what games are banned specifically? Well, the list ranges from Dota 2 and Smite (okay, other MOBAs) to pretty much anything Blizzard (Maybe for the eSports connection?) to Warhammer Online (...A game that doesn't exist anymore) to online poker games (Gambling is bad, I guess?) to... Fat Princess.

I give up. The full list is below.

Spoiler

Sorry, Riot, but no matter how much you try to push your idea of eSports... well, let's just say you're out of your League.

 

[Arras]

Fat Princess is kind of similar to MOBA's, I guess? Also gambling seems to be banned for the same reason as tobacco, firearms and stuff like that, which sort of makes sense. It seems that they're banned from playing anything remotely moba-ish.

 

[Satangel]

This is a big bummer for the happy few out there that are actually Challenger and have queue times of easily 15 minutes. When they have a queue like that currently, they mostly play Hearthstone, while their channel says 'playing League of Legends' . Hearthstone basically got MASSIVE exposure this way, riding on the back of LoL's success.
LoL has been the most viewed Twitch game for as long as I know, it's simply ridiculous, and when half of the pro streamers aren't actually playing LoL, of course Riot isn't happy about that.

It's a strict contract, but understandable. If they want to play any of those games, just do it off stream. Still, what those players will do during those queue times, that is now the real question....

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Me being not so familiar with League of Legends and tournaments and shit, I totally thought the title meant that people were rioting at a LoL tournament Then I looked into the thread and was disappoint

 

[Satangel]

TotalBiscuit's opinion on this matter, he's a pretty famous eSports commentator/person;

 

[joelv6]

Me being not so familiar with League of Legends and tournaments and shit, I totally thought the title meant that people were rioting at a LoL tournament Then I looked into the thread and was disappoint

same goes for me lol get it haha anywho that sucks oh well

 

[DSGamer64]

This is a big bummer for the happy few out there that are actually Challenger and have queue times of easily 15 minutes. When they have a queue like that currently, they mostly play Hearthstone, while their channel says 'playing League of Legends' . Hearthstone basically got MASSIVE exposure this way, riding on the back of LoL's success.
LoL has been the most viewed Twitch game for as long as I know, it's simply ridiculous, and when half of the pro streamers aren't actually playing LoL, of course Riot isn't happy about that.

It's a strict contract, but understandable. If they want to play any of those games, just do it off stream. Still, what those players will do during those queue times, that is now the real question....

Better to play other games then to start looking at pr0nz and fapping

 

[Arras]

This is a big bummer for the happy few out there that are actually Challenger and have queue times of easily 15 minutes. When they have a queue like that currently, they mostly play Hearthstone, while their channel says 'playing League of Legends' . Hearthstone basically got MASSIVE exposure this way, riding on the back of LoL's success.
LoL has been the most viewed Twitch game for as long as I know, it's simply ridiculous, and when half of the pro streamers aren't actually playing LoL, of course Riot isn't happy about that.

It's a strict contract, but understandable. If they want to play any of those games, just do it off stream. Still, what those players will do during those queue times, that is now the real question....

Windows Solitaire?

 

[Satangel]

Better to play other games then to start looking at pr0nz and fapping

Well....

Spoiler

'There isn't a screencap of him, more of just sound and what website he went on; like...

*Suddenly XXX website*
*zzzzt*
*shlick shlick shlick*

Then he started typing in chat about how he was in a rush to get off before church or something lol.'
http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=2678462
A professional LoL player has actually done this, by mistake, once

Windows Solitaire?

I'm sure they'll find something new, or maybe they'll negotiate with Riot to make this contact less strict.

 

[jurassicplayer]

http://kotaku.com/riot-changes-its-mind-will-let-league-of-legends-pros-1478349311

 

[Satangel]

http://kotaku.com/riot-changes-its-mind-will-let-league-of-legends-pros-1478349311

Yup, they changed their minds, a lot of it thanks to the community.
Reddit thread about this, a lot of replies in it, including from Riot themselves

 

[Sop]

This is a big bummer for the happy few out there that are actually Challenger and have queue times of easily 15 minutes. When they have a queue like that currently, they mostly play Hearthstone, while their channel says 'playing League of Legends' . Hearthstone basically got MASSIVE exposure this way, riding on the back of LoL's success.
LoL has been the most viewed Twitch game for as long as I know, it's simply ridiculous, and when half of the pro streamers aren't actually playing LoL, of course Riot isn't happy about that.

It's a strict contract, but understandable. If they want to play any of those games, just do it off stream. Still, what those players will do during those queue times, that is now the real question....

During Dreamhack CSGO set a new record, first time most viewed Twitch game. Although League has 1-2 Million players, CSGO only had 93k (new record) during the biggest tournament in CS history, as well as that the game was on sale for $3.